The RX-Channel-ByChannel logical device controls the basic parameters of an IRD and an input switch for the IRD which selects antenna, frequency band and polarization. RX-Channel-ByChannel replaces the RX-Channel device in FILTER-BY-CHANNEL workflow mode on modern M&C systems which store the channel data in a central SQL database. The device complements the TX-Channel-ByChannel logical device which provides a similar function for transmit chains.
Although all individual IRD parameters are directly accessible with the device, the typical way to operate the device is to select a satellite channel from the list and to select the proper input signal for the IRD. The RX-Channel-ByChannel device assists the operator in this task with the following functions:
The FILTER-BY-CHANNEL mode is the basic operation mode of the device. it resembles the behaviour of the former RX-ChannelSelect-CDB device. This mode assumes a work flow where the operator first selects a channel from the list of stored satellite channels, then selects the input signal for the IRD. The RX-Channel-ByChannel device assists the operator with a filter / autocompletion function in the channel field (typing a partial channel name reduces the list of displayed channel to those which contain the typed character sequence) and by reducing the list of selectable IRD input signals to those signals which currently match the satellite, frequency band and polarization plane of the selected channel.
Device window pages
The following table shows which device window pages are available with this individual device type. Tool-bar functions not mentioned here are described at the general description of device windows .
--- The main control (line settings select) page for the device. The layout of this page differs for the individual operating modes
--- The fault page
--- The device info page.
--- The maintenance page. The configuration parameters from this page are described below.Operation
The RX-Channel-ByChannel device implements the FILTER-BY-CHANNEL operation mode of the RX-Channel device. This makes selecting an already defined satellite channel is a simple 2-step procedure:
Instead of selecting the satellite and channel you also may enter the receive parameters at the frequency / pol / symbol rate / fec fields. The RX-Channel-ByChannel device forwards these settings to the IRD. The input selection list gets confined to the inputs matching the frequency band of the entered frequency.
The device also offers an option which automatically selects the input signal from the largest fixed pointing antenna which is capable to receive the channel after the channel has been selected. Manually selecting the input signal is not necessary in this case, but still possible, e.g. to override the automatic selection for using a turnable antenna.
Configuration parameters
At the maintenance page of the device window there are a couple of configuration parameters which must be set to interconnect the RX-Channel-ByChannel device with the IRD and the input switch.
| parameter | description |
|---|---|
| switchId | Enter the message identifier here of the parameter which shall receive the switch setting, e.g. "MATRIX.12.position". Look at the list of device driver variable definitions to see correct name of this setting at the device type you are using. |
| configFile | The name of the configuration file, the RX-Channel-ByChannel device reads the matrix input assignments from. You may use a common configuration file for all RX-Channel-ByChannel devices in the system or an individual file. The file format is described at the end of this chapter. |
| frequencyId | The parameter with the message ID entered receives the receive frequency setting from the device. |
| fecId | The message ID for setting the FEC |
| symbolRateId | The message ID for setting the symbol rate |
| dvbModeId | The message ID for setting the DVB-S/DVB-S2 mode. For most IRDs use the 'dvbMode' parameter for this. For the Scopus IRD2900 please read it's driver documentation for this parameter. |
| nlcModeId | The message ID for setting the NLC mode. |
| rollOffId | The message ID for settings the roll of |
| modulationId | The message ID for setting the modulation mode (QPSK, 8PSK etc.) |
| decoderInputId | The message ID to switch the IRD's decoder input between SAT/IP/ASI |
| ipTypeId | The message ID for selecting the IP protocol family (UNICAST/MULTICAST) at the IRD. |
| ipProtocolId | The message ID for selecting the IP protocol (UDP, RTP, etc.) at the IRD. |
| srcIpAddressId | The message ID for setting the IP source or multicast address at the IRD. |
| srcIpPortId | The message ID for setting the IP port at the IRD. |
| ipFecId | The message ID for enabling / disabling the IP FEC |
| decPhysInterfaceId | The message ID for selecting the physical network interface number at the IRD |
| irdLockFaultId | The message ID for the lock fault flag of the IRD. |
| antennaAutoSelect | Setting this to YES enables the automatic selection of an antenna when a channel is selected. Favors fixed antennas over turnable antennas, large over smaller ones. |
To make the RX-Channel-ByChannel device work, at least the frequencyId and symbolRateId fields must be set to the message IDs of the corresponding IRD parameters. If some other parameters are not supported by the IRD, leave the message ID fields empty, the same applies to the lock fault if a lock fault signalling in the RX-Channel-ByChannel device is not desired.
The configuration file format
The RX-Channel's configuration file is a plain text file which defines the matrix / switch input assignments. As this is a system wide assignment, you usually will edit one common configuration file for all RX-Channel-ByChannel devices connected to one input matrix.
In the file all empty lines and lines starting with a '#' character are ignored. All other lines are treated as table rows where the cells are separated by space characters. Each row describes one matrix input as follows:
| column | contents | remark |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | switch position / matrix input | If the input numbering starts at one or at zero, depends on the matrix / switch device driver. |
| 2 | antenna name | The antenna name must not contain spaces, commas ot pipe characters. |
| 3 | polarization | A one letter code, one of the follwing: X for horizontal Y for vertical P if the antenna must turn the feed in order to change the polarization |
| 4 | LNB LO frequency for this port | The LO frequency must be given as a decimal number (MHz) with a decimal point (no commas, no thousand's separators are allowed) |
| 5 | < or > | If this column contains ' < ', the switch position is used for frequencies below the limit contained in the next column. ' < ' works the other way round. |
| 6 | frequency limit for this port | The frequency limit must be given as a decimal number (MHz) with a decimal point (no commas, no thousand's separators are allowed) |
Example:
# Example configuration file for a RX-Channel-ByChannel device
#
#
# input no. polarization freq. limit [MHz]
# | | |
# | antenna | LO freq. [MHz] |
# | | | | |
01 ARD X 9750.0 < 11800.0
02 ARD Y 9750.0 < 11800.0
03 ARD X 10600.0 > 11800.0
04 ARD Y 10600.0 > 11800.0
05 NDR X 9750.0 < 11800.0
07 NDR X 10600.0 > 11800.0
17 SNGR X 9750.0 < 11800.0
18 SNGR Y 9750.0 < 11800.0
19 SNGR X 10600.0 > 11800.0
20 SNGR Y 10600.0 > 11800.0
09 EBU X 10000.0 < 11800.0
10 EBU Y 10000.0 < 11800.0
11 W1 X 9750.0 < 11800.0
12 W1 Y 9750.0 < 11800.0
23 W1 X 10600.0 > 11800.0
24 W1 Y 10600.0 > 11800.0
13 ASTRA X 9750.0 < 11800.0
14 ASTRA Y 9750.0 < 11800.0
15 ASTRA X 10600.0 > 11800.0
16 ASTRA Y 10600.0 > 11800.0
21 EB_12V Y 10600.0 > 11800.0
22 W1_V Y 10000.0 < 11800.0
The RX-Channel-ByChannel device parses this file on startup and when it receives a new name for the configuration file. So when you change the configuration file in the running M&C system, the best way is to restart the M&C server process to make all devices read the configuration file again.
Variables defined by this device driver
| name | type | flags | range |
|---|---|---|---|
| info.driver | TEXT | R/O | StringRange R/O |
| info.type | TEXT | R/O | StringRange R/O |
| info.frame | TEXT | R/O | StringRange R/O |
| config.switchId | TEXT | SAVE SETUP | StringRange |
| config.configFile | TEXT | SAVE SETUP | StringRange |
| config.frequencyId | TEXT | SAVE SETUP | StringRange |
| config.frequency.min | FLOAT | SAVE SETUP | DoubleRange (0.000 .. 0.000) |
| config.frequency.max | FLOAT | SAVE SETUP | DoubleRange (0.000 .. 0.000) |
| config.fecId | TEXT | SAVE SETUP | StringRange |
| config.symbolRateId | TEXT | SAVE SETUP | StringRange |
| config.dvbModeId | TEXT | SAVE SETUP | StringRange |
| config.nlcModeId | TEXT | SAVE SETUP | StringRange |
| config.rollOffId | TEXT | SAVE SETUP | StringRange |
| config.modulationId | TEXT | SAVE SETUP | StringRange |
| config.decoderInputId | TEXT | SAVE SETUP | StringRange |
| config.ipTypeId | TEXT | SAVE SETUP | StringRange |
| config.ipProtocolId | TEXT | SAVE SETUP | StringRange |
| config.srcIpAddressId | TEXT | SAVE SETUP | StringRange |
| config.srcIpPortId | TEXT | SAVE SETUP | StringRange |
| config.ipFecId | TEXT | SAVE SETUP | StringRange |
| config.decPhysInterfaceId | TEXT | SAVE SETUP | StringRange |
| config.irdLockFaultId | TEXT | SAVE SETUP | StringRange |
| config.antennaAutoSelect | CHOICE | SAVE SETUP | EnumRange (NO YES) |
| config.listMode | CHOICE | SAVE SETUP | EnumRange (NAME ALIAS) |
| antenna | TEXT | R/O | StringRange R/O |
| satellite | TEXT | R/O | StringRange R/O |
| input | CHOICE | EnumRange (unknown) | |
| fec | CHOICE | EnumRange (AUTO 1/2 1/3 1/4 2/3 3/4 2/5 3/5 4/5 5/6 6/7 7/8 8/9 9/10) | |
| polarization | CHOICE | EnumRange (X Y) | |
| comment | TEXT | SAVE | StringRange |
| rxFrequency | FLOAT | DoubleRange (0.000 .. 0.000) | |
| symbolRate | FLOAT | DoubleRange (0.0000 .. 0.0000) | |
| dvbMode | CHOICE | EnumRange (DVBS DVBS2 NS3 NS4) | |
| nlcMode | CHOICE | EnumRange (OFF ON) | |
| rollOff | CHOICE | EnumRange (0.02 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.35) | |
| modulation | CHOICE | EnumRange (BPSK QPSK OQPSK 8PSK 16PSK 16QAM 64QAM 256QAM 16APSK 32APSK) | |
| decoderInput | CHOICE | EnumRange (SAT IP ASI) | |
| ipType | CHOICE | EnumRange (UNICAST MULTICAST) | |
| ipProtocol | CHOICE | EnumRange (UDP RTP TCP ZIXI) | |
| srcIpAddress | TEXT | StringRange | |
| srcIpPort | INTEGER | IntegerRange (0 .. 65535) | |
| ipFec | CHOICE | EnumRange (OFF ON) | |
| decPhysInterface | INTEGER | IntegerRange (1 .. 4) | |
| channel | CHOICE | EnumRange (unknown) | |
| reset | TEXT | StringRange | |
| locked | BOOLEAN | SAVE | BooleanRange (true false) |
| channel.save | TEXT | SAVE NOPRESET | StringRange |
| rfLocked | BOOLEAN | R/O | BooleanRange R/O (true false) |
| ipLocked | BOOLEAN | R/O | BooleanRange R/O (true false) |
| copyFrom | CHOICE | EnumRange (?) | |
| display | TEXT | R/O | StringRange R/O |
| dispColor | TEXT | R/O | StringRange R/O |
| eventDescription | TEXT | SAVE | StringRange |
| faults.01 | ALARM | R/O | AlarmFlagRange R/O (IRD lock) |
| faults.02 | ALARM | R/O | AlarmFlagRange R/O (Config file) |
| faults.03 | ALARM | R/O | AlarmFlagRange R/O (Wrong antenna) |
| faults.04 | ALARM | R/O | AlarmFlagRange R/O (Wrong band) |
| faults.05 | ALARM | R/O | AlarmFlagRange R/O (Wrong polatization) |
| faults.06 | ALARM | R/O | AlarmFlagRange R/O (Database access) |